Riding the Tornado

Boom and bust economic cycles are inevitable in countries that are dependent primarily on resource exports. Countries like Canada. And we've had our share: minerals, timber, wheat. Perhaps the most spectacular boom and bust experienced in Canada was that in Alberta oil during the seventies and early eighties. When the bust hit, with a drop in world oil prices, those business people who knew how to "ride a tornado" (as one Albertan described the experience) simply cut their losses and moved out and on. Many others were devastated, left with nowhere to go. But the picture is not completely bleak. Faced with a possible oil boom of its own, Newfoundland is taking the lessons of Alberta to heart. Part three of the series Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada.